Support strategy
General In general, the Support is the backbone of the team. With a wide range of choices for any situation, the Support can singlehandedly turn the flow of the game. Whether your early focus is on Turrets, Airstrikes, or just being a medic to help with pushing Bots to the Money Ball, you should always be helping the team. Even if you have a terrible team, a good Support can hold their own with a clever combination of Airstrikes, terrain use, and the Shotgun. Medic The Support is the only class that is capable of healing and Over-healing allies, whether they are Pros, Bots, or Turrets. By actively healing those who are about to enter combat you are able to give your allies an advantage over their opponents. Healing those who are low on health and taking fire can also save their life and allow them to remain a threat to enemies, as well as preserving any kill streak they may have built up. Pairing up with a friendly Gunner, Tank, or Assault can help make them a terror to your foes, as well as giving yourself an ally with good firepower to help protect you if you come under attack. Overhealing any Bots allies spawn (except Buzzers and Gremlins) can help make them more effective and a more worthwhile investment for your team. Overhealing any Turrets that allies build will help make their investments in base defense pay off by ensuring the Turrets can remain operational during an attack. A fully upgraded Firebase is also capable of healing any allied Pros up to their full health, as well as providing cover fire. Let allies know if your Firebase has been upgraded for healing, and tell them where you've placed it so they know where to go for a quick heal. Don't forget that healing allies is also one of the Support's quickest ways to build Juice, which can help you stay alive when attacked, or assist allies during an assault. Area Denial On his own, the Support's weapons are mostly for self-defense. His skills however, can lockdown an area for an extended period of time. His Hack allows him to enhance the capabilities of any Turret of his choosing, including his own Firebase. The extended range and rate of fire hacked turrets can enable them to hit targets harder and faster than normal turrets. Multiple Turrets can be hacked at once, which can harden base defenses to the point where even Juiced Pros can have a hard time destroying them if a good balance of turrets are in use. Ask allies if they have cash to spare for turret construction, as it is rare for a single Support to have enough income to afford an entire base of powerful turrets. Game modes Blitz Crossfire Early game After upgrading a skill or two of your choice, be sure to overheal any allies on the way out of spawn to help give them an edge over your opponents. If most of your team is going to push one lane, it is wise to hack the starting RockIt turret in your base that covers the opposite lane. For example, if most of your team goes right, hack the left turret. This can help defend your base better on the side that has a lesser allied presence. If you wish to advance with your team, you may want to upgrade your Firebase and Passive skills early so your Firebase can provide better cover fire as well as enhancing any allied Bots nearby. For those with a preference of base defense, upgrades to Hack and Airstrike may be helpful. Upgraded Hacks last longer, take less time to execute, and give greater range and rate of fire, while upgraded Airstrikes will give you a better chance of taking out enemies in strong defensive positions. If you are not confident in your ability to use Airstrikes though, an alternative skill set for base defense are upgraded Hacks and Firebases so your defenses have an extra turret. Mid game By this point, there should be a fairly clear line of defense that both teams may have established. If teams are evenly matched, the abilities of Supports can make the difference between which team becomes more dominant on the map. Dominant players on each team should also be showing a presence on the scoreboard, and these players are the ones you may wish to focus your healing on, especially if they are a Gunner, Tank, or Assault. If you are supporting allies on the attack, place your Firebase in a location that can help control that bot lane, as well as giving allies a place to fall back to if they get into trouble. A level 3 Firebase will be able to heal allied Pros, even if the Support himself is occupied with base defense. Be wary of placing Firebases within the range of an Ejector though, as any Firebase that is not level 3 and fully overhealed will be destroyed by an Ejector used by an opponent. If your focus is on base defense, make sure to keep your base turrets overhealed when possible, and Hack the turrets on the side that is facing more pressure to help keep your opponents at bay. Be sure to ask allies that are respawning to help invest in upgraded turrets on their way back to the fight. Don't try to take on an enemy Jackbot XL on your own unless you have Juice or multiple Airstrikes ready, as the Support doesn't have much raw firepower. Instead, keep allies that are engaging a Jackbot healed when possible so they can focus more on shooting it and less on staying alive. Feel free to use an occasional Airstrike on a Jackbot to help chip away at its health. Attacking a Money Ball If you're feeling brave and have good cover from allies, using a Level 3 Hack to take over an enemy base turret can literally turn your enemies defenses into your own defensive structure. Typically if one wants to Hack an enemy turret, RockIts and ShaveIce are ideal as they have high armor and high cost. This can provide both a tactical and an economic advantage over the other team, as they may be forced to destroy their own turrets they built just to keep their base safe. If an enemy Support has a level 3 Hack available though, they can counter-hack the turret back to their side if they get support from their teammates. A more conservative option is to use upgraded Airstrikes to deal heavy damage to the other team's defenses while healing allies that have strong firepower like Gunners, though Tanks and Assaults are a good second option. Use of a Hacked Firebase can help passively keep the enemy's bots down, and upgrades to your Passive skill will enhance your personal survivability, as well as the strength of nearby allied bots. Defending the Money Ball Try to keep the balance and position of turrets in mind when building them. Long Shots that have a high wall next to them are ineffective as most of their shots will simply hit the wall. If they have a relatively unobstructed angle to a bot lane however, they can be effective in keeping opposing bots under control as long as allied bots are pushing forward. Longshots are ineffective at close range, and their low armor will ensure their destruction if they encounter heavy fire. Positions that are experiencing steady pressure will benefit from RockIts and ShaveIce as these turrets have high armor. ShaveIce work best when near other turrets with strong firepower like Rockits, and RockIts benefit from having its targets clustered together. A nearby Firebase can help provide even greater firepower and help deny an area of your base from enemies in conjunction with a ShaveIce and RockIts. If a position is under heavy pressure and in immediate need of defense, Lazer Blazers may be considered. Their armor and firepower are painfully low at level 1, and level 2 isn't much better, but a level 3 is capable of holding its own for a short time. LazerBlazers do however construct very quickly, are low cost, have a high rate of fire, and high accuracy. They are reasonably effective at warding off enemy Pros with low health and firepower like Assassins, as well as dealing with small groups of bots. Don't forget that your Firebase is technically free to deploy, and doesn't give enemies much cash when destroyed, but it does require a few seconds to become operational and has less armor before it is ready. Airstrikes can quickly eliminate a group of bots, and the Shotgun's grapple is capable of destroying a single Black Jack. Weapons Heal/Hurt Gun The "Heal" is going to be your major focus here as the "Hurt" range isn't too large and the damage is nothing to brag about. Over-healing teammates and pushing lanes with your Bots are going to be your major concerns here. You should keep your teammates overhealed at all possible times when they're around. Use common sense; if you see a Tank taking a lot of shots, you should be right behind him or around a corner healing him. The gun locks on; use that to your advantage and watch for enemy Pros trying to flank from the side or behind. Also remember that your Turrets and Firebase can be overhealed. If you throw down your Firebase down, make sure to overheal it if it's in a heavy combat zone before you go running off. Anyone too far away to use your Shotgun on will probably be too strong for the "Hurt" to compete with their weapon. Anyone close enough will be fodder for your Shotgun. The major time to use the Hurt is when you've caught an Assassin in an attempt at your life and they're running away. The Hurt will keep them visible and stay locked on, although any Assassin who has gotten close enough for that should be a one or two hitter for your Shotgun, and unless they Smoke Bomb jump away, they are a prime target for your Shotgun. The only time for Hurt is a fleeing Assassin who's just out of range of your Shotgun, or someone who is very low on health and only needs that last little bit of damage to take them out. The one exception to these recommendations is when you are Juiced. By using the Heal/Hurt Gun instead of the Shotgun, you keep your heath up (thanks to the drain) even while facing a whole enemy team. Shotgun The Shotgun has high damage, and is any medium-to-low Armor classes' nightmare. One well placed shot will kill an Assassin (without an Armor Endorsement) instantly, especially when they hit you from the front or miss you with an Assassination. This weapon however, has a low rate of fire, short range (with an even shorter effective range), low ammo capacity, and a relatively slow reload. With the correct Endorsements, this weapon can annihilate anyone at close range, even Tanks. Use it to take out any lone Pros, especially if you can sneak up or drop in on them unnoticed. Only commit to the Shotgun if you know you can get the kill and get out of there without dying. Don't expect to drop into the middle of the enemy team and get a kill. Also, try to avoid going one on one against a Tank unless you sneak up on them from behind, because it takes three or more shots to take down a Tank at full health giving them ample time to kill you. Skills Hack The skill used most often by Supports that focus on base defense, Hacking will enhance base turrets and Firebases with greater range and rate of fire. Each upgrade to the Hack increases the length of time it lasts, decreases the time to perform, and further enhances turrets under its influence. A level 3 Hack is even capable of turning hostile turrets to your side if you can survive long enough to pull it off. The Hack can be active on multiple turrets at once, so take the opportunity to enhance turrets that are often engaged with opponents. Keep an eye on the number that shows up on the hologram at each turret's base. A whole number shows the level of the turret that is not hacked (ie a level 1 RockIt). A whole number followed by a decimal is a turret that is under the influence of a hack (ie a level 1.1 RockIt). The higher the decimal number, the higher level the hack is. A 1.3 turret is more effective than a 1.1 turret, so if your Hack level is lower than the Hack level a turret shows, you typically want to avoid hacking it. The exception to this is if the hack is nearly over. The duration remaining on a hack is represented by how full the decimal number appears to be. A completely full decimal number shows that the turret has been hacked recently. A nearly empty decimal number shows a turret that will soon have its hack expire. A turret that has been hacked by an opposing support will show a ".X" instead of a decimal number (ie a level 1.X RockIt), and will be of the opposing team's color. Only a level 3 hack is capable of hacking hostile turrets. The most immediate solution to a turret that has been hacked by the opposing team is to destroy it, but this denys the defending team use of that turret node until it becomes available again, and is a loss of resources invested in its construction and upgrades. A defending support can "counter-hack" the turret back to their side if they also have a level 3 Hack. If the "counter-hack" is successful, it will return the turret to the defending team's side with the effects of a level 1 hack (ie a level 1.1 RockIt). Firebase The firebase is an excellent extra Turret for the field. Use it as a frontline, area denial tool for Bots and Pros or as a extra Turret for defending your Money Ball. Use it around corners to catch enemy players unaware or in choke points to close off a section of the Arena. Once upgraded to Level 3, your Firebase becomes not only a dealer of damage but a dispenser of health. Keeping a Level 3 Firebase on the front lines can be an excellent way to give your team extra support. If you're trying to play a more Turret focused game, make sure you Hack it as its range and rate of fire increases dramatically. Airstrike The Airstrike is an excellent skill for taking down Turrets, Firebases, swarms of Bots, and Pros. It is a supremely powerful offensive tool; a Support player who can place a really accurate Airstrike can take out anyone. They will stick to Players, Bots, and Turrets, and it hits the topmost level of wherever the Airstrike "beacon" is place. This can be used to the Support's advantage by placing an Airstrike under a bridge in order to hit something on top of it. Airstrikes are the most powerful single attack in the game; a single Airstrike can even take out a Juiced Pro at full Health. Endorsements : See Support Custom Classes for user-submitted Endorsement choices. By default support gets Gold Skill Recovery, Silver Armor, and Bronze Health Recovery. Your Endorsement strategy can be very different depending on what you're style is. Rate of Fire can be important if you're primary focus is on defense as it effects how quickly your Heal/Hurt Gun heals and over-heals allied Pros, Turrets, and Bots. Skill Recovery is also important because of the huge value the Support's Skills play in both offense and defense. Armor and Health Recovery are always important, especially if you intend on putting yourself in riskier places by playing more offensively. Speed can be good for making yourself a better medic. Juice and Critical Shot can be less useful unless you have a specific strategy in mind. Clip Size, Reload Speed, and Weapon Accuracy should only be considered if you plan on playing almost exclusively with your Shotgun as they have no effect on the Heal/Hurt Gun. Juice Juice turns all Pros into juggernauts, but the Support tends to get only limited use out of it. The Shotgun is capable of killing any non-Juiced Pro in a single shot, and can give a Juiced Support a decent counter to Juiced enemy Pros. Juiced Hurt/Heal Guns will heal allies at increased speeds, and is also capable of mitigating incoming damage to the Support when on the attack. Juice can also be an effective way to survive long enough to Hack an enemy turret, especially LazerBlazers and RockIts. Be wary of enemy Pros that may grapple you while you do this as it will stop your Hacking attempt. Arenas AmmoMule Arena GrenADE III Arena LaseRazor Arena Steel Peel Arena Category:Strategy